Texas Republican Congressman Mac Thornberry on Thursday said military training mishaps have claimed as many lives as the Las Vegas massacre, but haven't received the same amount of attention, the Washington Examiner reported.
The keynote speaker on U.S. military strength at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee made the comments while making a point about the armed services being woefully underfunded and underprepared.
So far in 2017, Thornberry said 57 military members have lost their lives to various mishaps, including 17 sailors killed in two Navy ship collisions and 16 troops killed in a Marine Corps C-130 crash; 59 people died Sunday in Las Vegas.
"If you add it all up, we have lost roughly the same number of people in training accidents this year as got shot in Las Vegas this week," Thornberry said during his address. "If you go back and look at the accidents … not all those accidents have got that much attention."
Thornberry has previously said Washington needs to shoulder the blame for the numerous mishaps.
"Part of the underlying cause of the training and maintenance problems that plague our military is Washington's dysfunctional budget process," Thornberry said last month.
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